This site will no longer forever and ever carry MP3s of soundtracks. The main reasons I've decided upon this is:

1) I'm really unsure about the legality of it (but who's certain of any real legality of these things?); I mean, I'd say my Saturn porting was probably pretty illegal too, but I figure the soundtrack distribution was more in the spotlight since that's the current media frenzy as well as the fact that those are actually still sold, while the Saturn game is, quite obviously, not.

An interesting thing, the MP3s were once one of the primary draws of this site over others. But now I think it's reached a level of maturity where it contains such a diverse and heavy set of content it doesn't need cheap tricks to prove itself anymore. I've also come to realize there is almost nothing left I can do for it. The only undocumented El-Hazard artifacts are scattered thingies here and there like CD image collections, other meager third party products like pencil boards or figures, things like that. Most of those would require spending lots of money at aution sites, perhaps even over in Japan (using one of those middleman services which pick up and ship out the item for me at cost!)

El-Hazard Online is pretty much only going to be maintained by me, but El-Hazard will acquire no more of my money and very little of my time. I'm pleased with where the site has managed to grow to and I have nothing else to really add. Of course, submissions are still welcome, if anyone has anything spectacular to add.

I mentioned before about making "sister sites", and I think that's where I'm headed. In case you missed the other topic w(hich should still be on the first page right now), the "sister sites" will be any site which chooses to reside on this server and use the same page generator scripts as EHOL has been using for a long time now. I'm thinking my first "sister site" project might be one on Azumanga Daioh as sort of a warm-up exercise. Granted, the series is so popular that I can't imagine making an "Azumanga Online" that's going to be any trump card on the internet, but I figure I'll give my two cents as well as try to document the various fangames and third party software that got generated for it. (There is a lot, and in Japan fangames apparently have an acceptance equal to the doujinshi artists, which is awesome.)

Well, that's all for now. I'll post a link later if I get anything done with the AD sister site anytime soon.

'Course, they're pirate discs, but since you're talking torrents, I doubt you are concerned about it.

Anyway. I know the soundtracks are out of print and I do think to a point I probably could give them out without any actual retaliation. But one time long ago Viz Comics actually thought my site was worthwhile to become a paid advertising receiver thing, which would've been great. A personal letter from someone inside and everything. But shortly thereafter, for no explained reason, I was removed from that offer because of "pirated materials" being available to download. Though they weren't explicit, and it could be they were considering the PC game, my bet was that the soundtracks were #1. That's been nagging me for a while.

So, really, I don't -know- if they were actually an illegal thing in the big picture. I just assume they're viewed that way to third parties who don't know any better. And that's enough for me.

Well, we all respect and admire the fine job you did, Rob. You have created one hell of a site. El-Hazard is one of my favorite animes, and it's nice to know that even though the series itself is over, this site will remain as a monument to its greatness.

I, myself, never really cared much for the mp3s. But I do understand why you had to get rid of them. You gotta watch your ass in these trying times, lest some random lawyers come right up behind you and bite it.

Well, it was a fun ride. But I realize that there's no hope for something to stay in only a cult-popular series that has had no significant developments probably since 2001, give or take. Basically what we have now is a museum to something that "was". The only thing really left to do is expand and generalize to other things. But we'll never again be active on El-Hazard alone. I'm just glad I was able to get the mild flurry of activity that I ever did. Mission accomplished I suppose.

I'll admit El-Hazard will always be the foundation of my anime experience; it was the first one to get me in, get me going, get me interested in Japanese animation at all. And by a fluke even. So it'll always be the real "first love" of sorts. But even today my active favorites are Trigun and Azumanga Daioh, with a few extra shows like Chobits and Saber Marionette J being in the mix as well-liked. And I have to face that there's a lot more support for the "big" series like Trigun and Azumanga.

I still wonder if I should just lock down the forum permanently and convert it to some type of document archive, similar to what happened to the old "Pic of the Moment" device. The unwieldly membership database -- mostly filled with people who joined just for the sake of accessing resources -- has become pretty much a useless thing just eating up server resources. In the past during the heyday of this site it served a much greater purpose in general bandwidth control, but with the MP3s gone and its popularity plummeting the point of control is pretty much nill. "Fujisawa's Final Exam" would then be converted to just a general on-site "game" -- since it has far too much work in it to just be shelved.

Well said, my man. I do like the idea of this forum becoming a perament memorial to all the fun times we had here. But as you say, we are on to bigger and better things now. We should never forget, however, from whence we came.

Waxing nostalgic,

MJE

(BTW, Trigun anime was another of my favorites. Collecting the TPBs now.)

I feel that the EH portion of the forum (you meant to leave the forum up in general for our future anime endeavors right?) should be left up, if only to accomodate the occasional question/inquiry from some random web wanderer (pun very much intended)? EHOL still is the one-stop shop for info about the series!

I really have to get my ass going on that KOR site, too. I'm sure you're busy with school and all Bob, but I'm surious to know how your Azu Dai site is getting on? ^_^

Regardless of what you end up doing, you have my sincere thanks for keeping this site going as long as you have. After I first watched El-Hazard and started looking for fansites, this was one of the few that was actually still being updated and continued to find new content. I've had many marvelous discussions here, and the El-Hazard round robin was terrific fun and one of the best (and longest!) round robins I've had the joy of participating in. It also, in a way, accomplished my long held dream of writing an "epic" El-Hazard story, for which I'm very glad. Good luck with your future projects.

I feel that the EH portion of the forum (you meant to leave the forum up in general for our future anime endeavors right?) should be left up, if only to accomodate the occasional question/inquiry from some random web wanderer (pun very much intended)? EHOL still is the one-stop shop for info about the series!

Well, that's a good idea. Maybe what I'll do instead is enable guest posting as an experiment thing; that might cut down on unnecessary regs for people who just have quick thoughts. Only if it actually becomes a problem/abused would I switch it back. ??

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I really have to get my ass going on that KOR site, too. I'm sure you're busy with school and all Bob, but I'm surious to know how your Azu Dai site is getting on? ^_^

Only mildly faster than your KOR probably. Really I was thinking of doing another basic site like this one, but Azu's popularity makes it so I'd only be redundant. There are already plenty of other fantasic Azu sites that do the job. As such I've decided I might just focus it on a niche, which would be games made for it for example. Unless I'm mistaken and there's some other void I could fill.

Of course, perhaps somewhat ironically, I say all this and a topic like this suddenly appears.

is this site ran off a payed server? I just never actually knew that. I was sad when I saw the Pic of the Moment disapear, even though I never actually wrote on them, everyone else's responses were quite they funny ones.

So is the picture RPG still just staying on here as well? Was everyone allowed to download the MP3's? Wasn't it just contributors?

Erg, now I have to go find some torrent for all of them, or maybe just buy all those bootlegged copies ha.

It's sad to see El-Hazard Online die, but hey it was awesome while it lasted, and I'm pretty sure it was around way before I came here. It also is some intense pearl coding, I wish I could do this. Anyways, hope you guys are having a nice spring, or something...

Originally ... probably up until a couple years or so ago ... I had been running it off my at-home DSL connection with a decticated computer running as a server in the basement. But yeah, eventually that became rather ridiculous to handle. (Typcal DSL has constrictions which make it hard for me to even enjoy my own internet under heavy stress periods.) Plus the download speeds were never that great from it anyway. So eventually it moved to an overall dependable (despite some early-on quirks) yet cheap service.

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I was sad when I saw the Pic of the Moment disapear, even though I never actually wrote on them, everyone else's responses were quite they funny ones.

I agree. I'd have no aversions to restoring it... if someone could guarentee a new image every few days or so. Since that kind of regularity is the only hope it has to being used and thus producing the funnies.

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So is the picture RPG still just staying on here as well?

Assuming you mean the El-Hazard PC / GBA game... yes, that's staying probably forever. Anyone ever want to rewrite the script for me so it's actually El-Hazard canon instead of what I use to think was a funny modification to it?

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Was everyone allowed to download the MP3's? Wasn't it just contributors?

At first it was contributors only. Later, "Fujisawa's Final Exam" (accessable by viewing your own profile) was added to compensate for the fact that there was very little left I could expect anyone to contribute. Getting a good grade on the FFE (75%+ was it?) would give you the same privledge as a donation.

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It's sad to see El-Hazard Online die, but hey it was awesome while it lasted, and I'm pretty sure it was around way before I came here.

It actually as been around a decent amount of time. I -think- it was started in May 2001 ... ? Anyway, I wouldn't say it was "dying". It's just more like a museum or a reference book.

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It also is some intense pearl coding, I wish I could do this.

Hah, thanks. Though I think everything I've done would've been recommended as a PHP job... something I still haven't learned. Oh well.

Assuming you mean the El-Hazard PC / GBA game... yes, that's staying probably forever. Anyone ever want to rewrite the script for me so it's actually El-Hazard canon instead of what I use to think was a funny modification to it?

That was supposed to be my job, and I never followed through. I'm sorry now that I ever made the criticisms that made you feel that changes were necessary, since I'm no longer ready to own up and do my part to help "fix" things. I really was gung-ho about it at one time, but my enthusiasm died depressingly quickly...

That was supposed to be my job, and I never followed through. I'm sorry now that I ever made the criticisms that made you feel that changes were necessary, since I'm no longer ready to own up and do my part to help "fix" things. I really was gung-ho about it at one time, but my enthusiasm died depressingly quickly...

Ha, I had forgotten who I had done that to. Weird history. That's one thing people never take advantage of with me. It's like "Okay, I'll loan you the $100 since you're short..." and then I forget. And then, as long as they're honest, they'll come back and it's like "Here's the money I owe you" and I go ... "... oh yeah." And I never fail to remind them they could've never paid me back and I'd have forgotten about it.

See, I had thought my mods were "funny", but now I realize just how childish they were and actually that's the one thing that really bothers me about it. I'd do it myself, but I'm overrun with my own work. Of course... I'm acting like it's a big deal. Really it'd just be like reading a short story more or less and fixing some dialog. Not like I'm even recreating the game. Pfft. But then, thinking how popular this was wasn't, changing it probably won't affect that many lives. I guess I'll see if I can work it in. If I remember to do it.